Review: Fresh Sugar Rosé Tinted Lip Balm

I feel like I've started every post this semester with something along the lines of, "I promise, I didn't die."


Well, I promise I didn't die.  So much busy, so little sleep, so little free times (all of which are being spent watching The West Wing, which I am now hopelessly obsessed with.  Someone make me a White House Press Secretary, okay?).  Anyways, I've bought some stuff over the last month that I'm going to try to review, starting with this lip balm.


I really, really wanted to hate this product.  I know that sounds weird.  But I've seen so much about these floating around the Internet, mostly positive, some negative, but all pointing towards me loving it.  Do I want to love a sheer, $22 lip balm?  No.  Not at all.  $22 for lip balm is kind of obscene.  Did I end up loving it in spite of that?  Sadly, yes.


I'm talking about the Fresh Sugar lip balms.  They are all $22.50 at sephora.com, come in a wide range of colors with SPF 15, and are basically the best thing since slice bread and Nutella.  So the colors are Original (clear), Coral, Rosé (berry rose), Honey (nude), Passion (crimson red), and Plum (berry plum).  I would have picked up Coral, but it came out just about a week after I originally bought Rosé, which is what's pictured below.  It's not really worth swatching, because the picture is pretty true to life and it swatches pretty sheer.

Here's the rundown:


Packaging: Oh, the most excellent of packaging.  First off, it comes in a pretty, printed little box that was almost too lovely to throw away.  The actual tube itself is metal, and has a really nice, luxurious weight to it.  You twist off the cap, and then twist up the base to push up the lip balm.  I love this packaging.  It looks gorgeous, it feels expensive (haha, well, it is), and it's functional--I never loose the lid in my purse and risk damaging the lip balm.


Formula: Oh goodness.  It goes on like butter.  It really does feel like a balm, in that it actually goes beyond the surface of my lips to deal with dryness, and doesn't just sit on top of them.  My lips are noticeably less chapped when I use this on a daily basis.  Furthermore, the lasting power of this balm is impressive.  I can still feel it on my lips more than 2 hours later, which is more than I can say for most lip products.  The SPF is a really pleasant bonus here.  Plus, it tastes like lemon cookies!  The taste/smell doesn't linger, but it's yummy.


Color: Sephora describes this as a berry rose, which I'd say is pretty accurate.  On me it goes on as a sheer pink-red that amps up the color of my lips just enough to be noticeable but not so much that I can't apply this without a mirror.  I am a huge fan of sheer lip colors that still pack a color punch, and am dying to try the Coral and Nude versions of this.


Awkward Chic rating: A reluctant A.  It's overpriced, and I'm probably going to go through a tube of this in a few months, but I LOVE IT.  I use it all the time.  It's upsettingly fabulous.  I will probably spend an obscene amount of money on these.


Image via sephora.com.